The retail industry uses a process called planogramming for creating and communicating the design of a merchandise layout within a given category to be replicated at multiple retail locations. Typically created by corporate management or other centralized decision-makers, a planogram is an illustration, drawing, or instructions showing where products should be placed on pegboard or other display background surfaces. It also details what fixtures, shelves, hooks, or other product display holding equivalents are used for displaying these products.
Retailers use planogramming to direct and influence consumers' purchases by creating merchandise displays that are well organized and visually appealing. The goal of planogramming is to increase sales and profits. Planogramming both improves the customer's shopping experience and influences customer behavior to encourage trade-up and impulse purchases. For retail corporate management, the planogram is utilized as an information conveyance tool with the goal of ensuring that merchandise in their retail locations is set for display exactly as planned at the corporate headquarters. For employees in these retail locations, the planogram is used as a specific instruction for setting up the merchandise displays.
Planogramming is one of the more costly payroll functions in retail. Planograms are typically created at the corporate level, usually in corporate planogram rooms, by highly paid Senior Buyers, Corporate Planners, Divisional and Senior V.P.s. Their time is invested to make sure every item in their stores is displayed in a manner that maximizes its sales potential. Management undertakes this expensive enterprise with the expectation that the optimal merchandise display they approved will be replicated in each of their stores exactly as created in their corporate headquarters.
In current practice, once the planogram is approved by management, a UPC code is attached to each merchandise item displayed. These UPC codes are then scanned using a hand held bar code reader to record the merchandise in the planogram. Next, peg holes are counted to establish the placement of fixtures and merchandise within the display pegboard and reflected in the planogram. This information is detailed in a paper document of the planogram, which is then distributed to stores for implementation. FIGS. 1A and 1B depict the traditional paper planograms received by individual retail stores.
Store employees use the paper planogram document to physically set the merchandise display. These merchandise displays are typically set when stores are closed, by hourly employees working late into the night, using methods that typically involve manually counting peg holes to determine fixture and merchandise placement, in an effort to recreate the planogram layout determined by corporate. Thus, display setting using traditional paper planograms is time-consuming and costly.
Further, the existing process used by retailers for setting planograms leaves much room for error in recreating the merchandise display in the store. An error in the placement of one fixture when setting the planogram can make the entire planogram incorrect. Many times this error is not realized until the employee is near the end of setting the planogram, at which time the employee discovers that merchandise to be displayed will not fit in the available area remaining. To correct the error, the employee must strip merchandise and fixtures already set and reset them in their proper locations. This setting and re-setting of the planogram adds additional time, increasing labor costs for the retailer.
Therefore, there is a need for an efficient, precise system for setting fixtures and merchandise in retail locations based on planograms that are set in a location other than the retail location.